This is a cute story of Kelly and her two best friends Lisa and Rebecca. Their goal for junior high is to become more "popular". When Kelly sees that only Lisa and Rebecca are succeeding, she starts to feel sorry for herself. Its your typical junior high "tradgity"

I don't think this book is your typical "junior high tragedy," as another reviewer described it. While it's been one of my favorites for at least ten years, it's also taken on more meaning to me as I got older and had to deal with the issues between my mother, grandmother, and myself - much as Kelly does.

Glass Slippers Give You Blisters is told from the point of view of twelve-year-old Kelly MacDonald, who is just starting seventh grade with her two best friends Lisa and Rebecca. When her friends get cast in the school play, "Cinderella," and she doesn't, Kelly has to look first at what it means to do a good job and not just try to fake your way into a role, and then to explore who she can be on her own.

More than that, though, is the tension between her mother and grandmother. Gram, an artist, ran off to New York to "develop as an actress" when her mother was eight, and her mother has never forgiven her. As a result, she hates anything to do with the theater, and is less than pleased with the fact that Kelly wants to be involved with a play.

In some ways Kelly's work on the play brings her mother and grandmother closer together - and also creates an understanding between her mother and herself. But it's not perfect. When Gram suffers a stroke, Kelly feels responsible, and has to deal with that guilt. She is also the only child left at home, now that her perfect older sister has gone to college, and faces the fact that she's always gotten along better with Gram than her mother - which of course doesn't please Mom.

Kelly also has lots of flaws - her tendency to daydream, her temper, her guilt, and the way she has to learn to do a good job without faking someone out. One of the most realistic things is the way she gets angry when she hears the snobby set designer taking credit for her work with the lights. Gram tells her not to go needing approval from other people, which I think is hard for most people. All of Kelly's flaws make her a very real, and humorous, person.

Glass Slippers ... is no epic, but it ends happily, and hopefully, with the promise of a truce between her mother and Gram, and Kelly and Mom. Most girls spend their lives looking for that truce.

this book is about Kelly, she and her 2 friends Lisa and Rebecca try out for a school play, of "Cinderalla" Kelly makes a total fool of herself, and then find out what happens next in this book and how she gets in the play!

The author was one of my boyhood icons. In this autobiography she undermines my high opinion with unwitting revelations of her unending self regard, and her obsessive craving for celebrity and adulation.She fails her children, paricularly Larry, in this frantic search for theatrical success. Yes, she was a talented lady, but she bought success at a terrible price to those around her. I stand disappointed.

I thought this was a terrifc book from cover to cover. From her childhood memories to her Broadway hits, there was the simple truth. She told it like it was. Reading it, I felt as if she were sitting across from me, telling me the story herself. I loved her before the I read the book and after, I loved her more.

This is a lovely book-warm, endearing, breezy, just like the lady herself. Filled with charming and hilarious anecdotes ("Mary Martin slapped here") and oodles of Broadway lore. She is also frank about how her career sometimes upstaged her family and the price she paid for that. Although I suspect there are truths she chose not to reveal (which one expects in any autobiography), this book is altogether delightful and just what you'd expect from Mary Martin.

As an elementary school librarian, I agree this book would be captivating for children. However, the material and language are not age appropriate. This was brought to my attention by a student and is now no longer on the shelf.

This happens to be one of the best compilations of African American tales out there, next to Zora Neal Hurston. I only wish the author wrote a fatter book! Too bad there aren't more of these in print. It's fascinating for both adults and children. In it you'' find all kinds of spooky and grotesque characters from boo-hags to conjure men. Excellently and poetically written in the lingo of the culture that these tales came from and close to the creative dialect of the tellers. I really wish she'd write another book on spooks!

As a former teacher of upper elementary and middle school students with many years experience, I found this book to be fascinating and would have no trouble recommending it to students in fourth grade and up. It has the scares kids love, plus a wonderful flow of language that is quite captivating. Based on stories told by the Gullah people of South Carolina and the people of Cape Verde Islands, the Bahamas, and Jamaica, this is the kind of book kids won't want to put down. Excellent!

This book looks to me just as an advertisement for the school run by the authors. If you want a really good and useful book on Applied Behavioral Analysis, read "Behavioral Intervention for Young Children with Autism" by Catherine Maurice, G. Green and C. Luce. However, before reading it, read the wonderful book "Let me hear your voice", by C. Maurice. Those two books gave me enough knowledge of ABA, so that I was able myself to do the therapy and recover my 3 year-old son from PDD in less than a year.

I would have to agree that this book is not what its title presents itself as. I was expecting a little more on how "exactly" to help my son Steven who is just recently 3 and has been diagnosed with moderate Autism Disorder. It did give me the positive boost and the push I needed to go out and get the early Intense intervention that I feel "my son" will really benefit from. It helped me to focus on the problem at hand and gave me a starting place to start my search for improving Stevens future. A good read for people new to this life change, however definately not for people looking for answers on how to actively facilitate learning. I also agree that it was a big push by the authors to use their method, and it worked on me, but I wouldn't discount other possibilities.

BUT, if you know about ABA and have read "The Me Book" from Lovaas or "Let me hear your voice" from Maurice - this book is not for you.

So let me talk to you if you are a newbie to autism. This book is GREAT because it explains in ENGLISH the basics on ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) treatment for autism. It reviews case studies on choices, how to get started, funding, and other extremely important topics for newbies.

It is a great book that I give to new parents with children affected with autism ALL THE TIME.

But remember: if you are an advanced person been doing the autism and ABA journey for awhile, this book is NOT for you.

...

I enjoyed this book a lot. Some of the reasons I liked this book is because it was like a real life story, it seemed like this could really happen. I usually do not like to read, but in this story I did not want to put the book down. I have read book by this auther and that is one of the reasons why I picked this book. I also can relate to this book because when I was younger I had a friend that had to move away to another state.

I think that the best part of the book was when Margy was moving. The reason I think that is because that was the most interesting part of the story, and that was where the conflict began. The worst part of the story was the conclusion. They did not really explain what happened and i think that they could of done a better job on that.

Two of the things that the auther explained the best was the setting, and the theme. The theme explained how all frindships do not always work, and sometimes it is for the best. The setting was in or near the city. The auther always explained how many different places they went and where they went. He also did a good job on letting you know what the surroundings were. That is why I think that the auther did the best on the setting, and the theme.

Kayla Redmond has been best friends with Margy McKenna since third grade. When Margy moves downtown to Chicago, Kayla is heartbroken. When Kayla finds out that Margy has a new best friend, Noelle, she gets mad. When Kayla is invited by Margy to a sleepover party with Noelle, she realizes that she is no longer Margy's best friend. Kayla even wishes that she could fast forward past all the other bad parts of her life. She was also having trouble with a science project, so she copied off one of Margy's old science reports! When she finally gets the guts to tell Margy exactly how she feels about Noelle, things aren't so weird anymore. Kayla feels as if she should take her finger off the fast forward button, because she realizes that her friendship with Margy is an example of a true friendship!

I usually love reading books written pre-20th Century, as this one was (1796) but I didn't really enjoy this one as much as I expected. Even though it caused a mild scandal when first published, it is (naturally) rather tame by today's standards. The heroine's great crime is to declare her love for a man before he declares his. How shocking!

The book is written as a series of letters to her beloved's son telling him about her great crime, in order to save him from making the same mistakes. I did admire the way she examined and analyzed her feelings, and how she could stand back and see how her actions didn't always coincide with her intentions. She just loved this guy passionately and she couldn't talk herself out of it, no matter how hard she tried. It got to be rather tedious though, after a while, and I wished she could just get over it and get on with her life.

All the melodrama in the book comes in the last thirty pages, which is such a contrast to the mild, slow-paced rest of the book. It seemed very foreign to the first part, like the author felt she ought to throw in some action at long last. All in all, it was okay, but not great.

Any fan of Mary Wollstonecraft should turn next to books like this one. Hays's novel is part of the first wave of responses to *A Vindication of the Rights of Woman* (1792) and shows that Wollstonecraft could produce thoughtful responses from British radicals that balance the unthinking ones from conservatives. With Amelia Opie's *Adeline Mowbray*, this novel tells us much about early British feminism and its interest in the novel.

I have read all of Wilkie Collins's major works (The Woman in White, The Moonstone, No Name, Armadale) and a couple of his minor works (Basil, The Dead Secret). Hide and Seek was written before Wilkie Collins made a name for himself as a 'sensation novelist'. Unfortunately whereas Basil, another early novel, showed the promise of Collins's later years, Hide and Seek does him no justice.

Hide and Seek is a melodramatic story of a young deaf and dumb girl of illegitimate birth (..a big no-no in Victorian society) who, through much trauma, finds herself adopted by a kind middle-aged couple (..adding to the melodrama, the adoptive mother is handicapped). Not wanting to cause a scandal, the adoptive parents try to pass the girl as their natural daughter. However a stranger from the girl's distant past makes a sudden appearance and ... you can guess the rest.

Wilkie Collins often uses rather contrived elements in his stories. Often times they are not central to the theme, and so one can forgive the author for resorting to 'cheap tricks'. However in Hide and Seek Wilkie Collins goes WAY overboard with not one, but two 'one in a billion' coincidences which directly affects the plot. This ruined the book for me.

But otherwise Wilkie Collins does write in a pleasent, fluid style. His stories are readable without being too weighed-down with literary excess. He wrote literature (versus popular fiction) for the masses. So Hike and Seek might be a pleasent diversion for Wilkie Collins fans. For all others I strongly advise reading any one of his famous works (listed above) to see Mr. Collins at his finest.

Wilkie Collins' first two novels,ANTONINA and BASIL,while displaying his talent for melodrama were stylistically amateurish.While BASIL has attracted the attention in recent years of scholars and readers,HIDE AND SEEK,Collins' third and according to the author-his best work written up to that point,has engendered little comment. HIDE AND SEEK was a turning point for Collins.Though the book contained some of the insipid prose writing that fatally marred the first two fictions,HIDE AND SEEK was the work in which Collins' power emerged.It tells the story of the destructiveness of religious and sexual hypocrisy and the bitter hatred and revenge that they have inspired.With the mysterious American begins the first in a line of sinister yet sympathetic avengers found in Collins' work-most notably NO NAME and ARMADALE.Despite its unevenness,HIDE AND SEEK is Collins' first memorable work and hopefully will receive the notice it deserves.

This is one of my favorite Collins novels. Mr. Valentine Blyth, an artist, is certainly a delightful character and his devotion to his invalid wife is moving. The Blyths's lives are changed when they meet a lovely orphan girl who is an exhibit at a circus because she is deaf and mute. The plot centers around Mary's mysterious background and the tragic story of her mother. The characters are well portrayed, although Mary, the Blyths' adopted daughter, is almost too perfect. The plot is quite melodramatic but interesting, a litle farfetched. I recommend this for anyone who has never read Wilkie Collins.

Actually I would give "Deck the Halls" 3.5 stars a notch slightly above "Silent Night" another recent read of mine for the holidays. This book involves a kidnapping, a mystery writer's husband and oddly enough the bumbling kidnappers decide to use her mystery novels as a plan for the ransom drop. Add in some little subplots (including a recently rich sleuth, Alvirah my favorite character for gutsy and nosey determination) that help flesh out the story and you have an effective little suspense novel written by a good mother and daughter writer team. I am interested in reading the other "Christmas" novels in Mary and Carol Higgins Clark chain, but I think I will wait until next year. I'm kind of surprised that the television networks haven't already optioned this.

This was pretty good, plot-wise. At times the plot would get a little far-fetched or silly, but otherwise it was very entertaining for a short holiday-time read. It featured Carol Higgins Clark's fabulous female sleuth, Regan Reilly, in a case involving the kidnapping of her father and his friend. Mary Higgins Clark contributed by having a (rather irriating--all right, downright irritating) amateur sleuth from one of her books help her on the case. Other than that annoying addition, I really recommend this book.

I have read several novels by Mary Higgins Clark, but none by her daughter Carol. They team up to write "Deck the Halls", which has Carol's series character, Regan Reilly, and Mary's character, Alvirah Meehan, who has appeared in several of her novels. The novel centers around the kidnapping of Regan's father, Luke Reilly, and his driver just days before Christmas. Regan and Alvirah team up to help solve the crime. The kidnappers follow a plot used by Regan's mother, Nora, who is a mystery writer. This is an enjoyable read, and is recommended for 3-4 hours of holiday fun.

I purchased this book because I trusted Oprah's judgment, and I wanted a long book to get lost in during summer '99. Well, it is now February 2000. Through great discipline on my part, I'm finally finished. I feel gypped. There were so many extraneous characters, and their fates were never disclosed. Why introduce characters when they ultimately fizzle out? Why couldn't the author spend more time giving insight into the main characters? Reading this book made me feel voyeuristic. There was a lot of surface "dirt," and I was frustrated by not knowing what made the characters tick. The adults were despicable: sleazy Omar, irresponsible Sam, needy/abusive Marie (I'm no shrink - was she manic-depressive?), among other losers. However, my heart broke for the children. I truly cared about Alice, Norm and Benjy; and I was pleased that the story ended somewhat optimistically - for Alice, at least.

This book should come with a warning: Only read it if you're too happy. It's guaranteed to bring your mood down several notches.

So much has already been written by previous reviewers that I am reluctant to add more. However, what stays in my mind two weeks after finishing this wonderful book is the fact that none of the characters, no matter their difficulties and unhappiness, was a victim. They all had choices to make and chances to make other choices. Often they made poor choices, but there was another chance, and another. Even Renie LECHANCE got a second and then third and even fourth chance. Now at the end, Norm and Benjy made their brave choices; Alice made hers and Marie will too. Sam finally made the choice to seek treatment on his own. This book was fascinating. Even evil Omar Duvall at times had my sympathy. I really believe he did not set out to hurt anyone. I was touched by his offer of the wood to help Benjy at the end, the very piece of wood that Benjy used to hit him with. Enough. Read the book yourself. It is a real page turner and good entertainment.

There's been a lot of earlier discussion about how dark and depressing this book is, and I don't disagree that the characters largely lead stunted, often miserable lives. But the gentle humor imbued in the writing helped lighten the load -- I didn't come away from each chapter depressed at all, only eager to get back to the book and see what happened next. Wally Lamb's "I Know This Much is True" was FAR darker and more depressing, as far as I'm concerned.

It's amusing to watch all the irony involved in Omar's twists and turns to avoid being found out -- you just want him to get caught, get flat-out caught, but you know he's too much of a snake and Marie too trusting, that he'll wiggle out of it somehow.

I love long reads, where you can really dig in and live with the characters for a while, and this book delivers. The writing is direct and precise, but lyrical enough not to feel too "modern." Some sentences were so well-crafted I'd go back and read them again, just to savor them.

I'd put this novel near the top of my all-time favorites list, no question.

Sounds cute, reads badly. There's nothing interesting sexually in this book, just things you've read before written in a dull manner, with an unbelievable story line no matter which route you take.

Ugh - hated this, was sorry I bought it. Really hard to follow, almost like a bad homework assignment, full of trivia and backtracking and looking things up. I like both romance and erotic books, and this one fits neither category, it's just a commerical come-on, and not sexy enough to hold your interest. Avoid at all costs!

I thought this would be cute, but it was irritating to read and pretty shallow. SM is a bad choice, normal dull things turn out good. A disappointment.